GIVING MASSACHUSETTS A Report on Philanthropy Trends | 2020 PhilAnThRoPy Massachusetts Table of ConTenTs Message from the Ceo 3 Methodology & Data limitations 4 Giving by Massachusetts-based foundations 6 Giving to Massachusetts-based Recipients 11 state and County-level Trends 16 Resource Center and end notes 34 acknowledgements A report of this magnitude doesn’t happen without a lot of help. We would especially like to thank our partners at The Boston Foundation who provided thought leadership and grant funding enabling us to expand the scope of this report. We would also like to extend our gratitude to: · Reina Mukai, Davis Parchment, Katherine Neiheisal & Nicholas Savot, our partners at Candid who were essential in gathering data and supporting the report’s development from start to finish. · Gail Pinkham, our Senior Director of Communications, who was instrumental in pulling together the different components of this report and facilitating the editing process. · Nancy Cowen, our talented designer who brought to life the data featured in this report. · Matthew Bannister (PeoplesBank) and Katie Allan Zobel (Community Foundation of Western MA) for providing encouragement and support to members of the community with e-reporting. · Dara Gannon (Cape Cod Foundation), Sylvia Murray (Island Foundation), Margaretta Andrews (Community Foundation of Nantucket), Luc Schuster (Boston Indicators), and Katie Allan Zobel (again!) for your insight on county-level trends. · Our many Members that responded to calls to e-report their data. We were A report of this able to triple the number of e-reporters in advance of this report leading to a magnitude doesn’t higher level of quality data. happen without a · All our Future of Philanthropy campaign and 50th Anniversary supporters who enabled us to take on a project of this scope. For a complete list, please visit lot of help. philanthropyma.org/support. • • • We would be remiss if we didn’t single out Nikita Singhal and Georganna Woods. As the primary researcher and author, Nikita’s skill, efficiency and graciousness have been at the center of this report since May 2019. Georganna, our long-term Research Associate at Philanthropy Massachusetts was an early conceiver and cheerleader for this report. Her deep understanding of data, reporting and our sector has grounded this work. 42 GivinGivinG GMassachusetts Massachusetts • A• aReport Report on on Philanthropy Philanthropy Trends Trends | 2020 | 2020 PhilanPhilanThRTRoPoyP yMassachusetts Massachusetts MessaGe fRoM The Ceo During my ten-year tenure at Philanthropy Massachusetts, I have often been called upon to share insights about philanthropy in our region. I usually cite general trends such as a stronger focus on general operating support or taking a trust-based philanthropy approach; alternatively, I might note pressing issues in the given year. But we have long felt that the region would benefit from more than my anecdotal (albeit I like to think informed) observations. In 2005, when we went by Associated Grant Makers, we issued a brief Giving in Massachusetts report but haven’t returned to one since then. Until now. We hope Giving Massachusetts 2020 will provide a baseline understanding of giving BY Massachusetts, TO Massachusetts, and even within each county, and that we can return to this type of report periodically to share an update of patterns over time. We all know that how you slice and dice the data can be subjective. The focus of this report is foundation giving. While it is common knowledge that individual giving makes up the vast majority of charitable giving in the U.S. (and Massachusetts is no different), there is little tracking and depth of knowledge on individual giving at this time. This report primarily focuses on foundation giving in 2017, the most recent year for which there is a near complete dataset. We recognize that 2020 is already dramatically different than 2017 as giving has surely shifted due to CovId-19. We anticipate juxtaposing data in this report to that of future years to understand changes in giving over time and in response to the worldwide pandemic. We invite you to share your perspective and reactions to this report. We hope to revisit this project every few years and would like to build on what we learn this go-around. While it won’t be perfect out of the gate, we believe it will set the stage for many more learning opportunities and conversations about philanthropy in our region. We look forward to having those with you as we go forth! Best, Jeff Poulos CEo, Philanthropy Massachusetts Giving MA 2020 will provide a baseline for looking at data and trends. 3 GivinG Massachusetts • a Report on Philanthropy Trends | 2020 PhilanThRoPy Massachusetts MeThoDoloGy & DaTa liMiTaTions To gather grantmaking data for the report Philanthropy Massachusetts conducted outreach to foundations, providing instructions and guidance to facilitate data submission to Candid. As the premier repository of foundation giving, Candid played a critical role in data collection, organization and analysis for this report. When grantors self-report data to Candid they ensure their organization’s work and subsequent regional trends are presented accurately to the public, allowing the greater philanthropic community to make informed grantmaking decisions moving forward. GivinG MassaChuseTTs a Report on Philanthropy Trends | 2020 PhilanPhilanThTRhoRPoyP yMassachusetts Massachusetts MeThoDoloGy & DaTa liMiTaTions Giving by Massachusetts- Giving to Massachusetts-Based State and County Trends is based Based Foundations is based Recipients is based on Candid’s on data in Candid’s Foundation Maps in on Candid’s grantmaker database. grants database. These grants are indexed January of 2020. The data includes 2017 The section measures MA-based according to Candid’s Philanthropy philanthropic giving by grantmakers grantmakers by number, assets, and Classification System, a glossary of terms located anywhere – in or out of MA – total giving to examine their growth and used to describe and catalog the nature to recipients located in the specified distribution, as well as their resources. and focus of each grant. Analysis of the MA county. The total dollar value Candid identified 3,481 MA-based fiscal year 2017 philanthropic giving of grants for each county is depicted independent, corporate, community, to MA includes a national sample of through 1) the total dollar amount (as and operating foundations and used 9,708 funders including 1,895 MA seen in the database); and 2) the total the total giving and assets collected foundations that awarded at least one dollar amount excluding grants to for these foundations to provide the grant of $1,000 or more to a MA-based private and community foundations and data in this section. Most foundations recipient organization. Dollar amounts higher education to demonstrate the are represented with fiscal year 2017 may represent the full authorized amount of funding reaching the broader data. Foundations for which data was grant award, or the amount paid in community. unavailable at the time of publication that year, depending on how the are represented with 2016 or 2018 fiscal foundation reports its activity. year data. Sources of data include the Grants awarded to private and Form 990-PF for private foundations community foundations have been and Form 990 for community excluded from the analysis to prevent foundations. double counting of grants. The sources of grants data include the Form 990- PF for Private Foundations and Form For a comprehensive understanding of giving in MA, we made decisions around 990 for community foundations and how best to filter and present data. Each grantmaking public charities; grants of the report’s main sections are primarily reported directly to Candid by funders; based on 2017 data but use different foundation websites and other sources datasets. Due to small discrepancies (e.g. news, press releases, or data between these sources, data may differ through partner organizations). across sections or to present-day data available on Candid’s database. Presenting this data with and without these exclusions is necessary. What is the purpose of excluding certain grants from this analysis? In 2017, total giving in MA was $4.7 billion. When excluding grants to private and community foundations and those to higher education institutions, this amount reduces to $3.1 billion. Presenting this data with and without these exclusions is necessary to add nuance to the story of giving in MA. Grants to private & community foundations are excluded from datasets, where noted, because intermediary organizations that act as both recipients and funders may re-grant funding, resulting in double-counting of grants. For example, if organization A gives $100K to organization B, a private or community foundation, which then grants the $100K to education-related work, then Candid would capture that as $200K towards education rather than $100K, which is the actual amount received by the community. Grants to higher education institutions are excluded from datasets, where noted, due to the large proportion of funds directed to MA colleges and universities. For example, total grantmaking funding received by Hampshire County in 2017 was $110 million; however, excluding higher education reduces this amount to $57 million. 5 GivinG Massachusetts • a Report on Philanthropy Trends | 2020 PhilanThRoPy Massachusetts GivinG by MassaChuseTTs-baseD founDaTions This section examines how foundations in the state have fared relative to U.S. foundations over the past decade and provides an overview of the scale and composition of the Massachusetts foundation community. GivinG MassaChuseTTs a Report on Philanthropy Trends | 2020 PhilanPhilanThRTRoPoyP yMassachusetts Massachusetts GivinG by MassaChuseTTs-baseD founDaTions Change in Ma foundation assets and Giving, 2007-20171 In 2017, Massachusetts foundation 30 assets reached peak levels at $29.4 +61% Massachusetts Foundation Assests billion and giving surpassed $2.0 25 billion. MA-based foundations showed strong growth from 2015-2017, increasing from 20 $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion. Over the ten-year period, both MA foundation assets and giving 15 increased by 61%.